A Potter by Elsie Berg.

A Potter by Elsie Berg.

I wanted to research her a bit, both to check copyright issues and to know something about her.

She and her husband, artist Mommie Schwartz were Dutch painters who stayed during the Holocaust and died 3 days after arriving at Auschwitz in 1942.

They refused to wear the yellow badge, but were betrayed to the Nazis.

Brilliance extinguished by dark hatred.

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Else Berg was born in Ratibor in Silesia on February 19, 1877, the youngest daughter of a Jewish cigar manufacturer. Because she wanted to become a painter, she started an art education in Paris in 1895. Among other things, she was taught at the studio of JC Laurens, where the French artist Henri Le Fauconnier was one of her fellow students.

At that time, Paris was the Mecca of art innovation. A flourishing movement, for example, was Cubism, to which Else Berg was also attracted. She also made works that were influenced by a movement referred to as luminism. This was a Dutch movement characterized by wide, block-shaped surfaces and bright colors.

In 1900 she left for Berlin and trained at the Academy of Arts. Her most important teacher there was Arthur Kampf. This painting training was strongly focused on rendering as realistic as possible, which seemed old-fashioned after the movements with which Berg had come into contact in Paris. She rented a studio in Berlin, which became a meeting point in the Berlin painting world. In this city she met the painter Mommie Schwarz. She left for Amsterdam with him in 1911.

There Else Berg became a member of the artists' association “De Onhoudenen”. In 1913 she participated in an exhibition of this association. Work by artists such as Bendien, Davids, Van Deene, Leo Gestel and Jan Sluyters was also on display here. Else Berg's work was also on display at exhibitions of the artist associations “St. Lucas” and the “Modern Kunstkring”.

The influence of Leo Gestel on Berg's work is clearly visible. Gestel became a good friend of Else Berg and Mommie Schwarz. In 1914 they made a trip to Mallorca together with Leo and his wife. During this trip the three artists created numerous works. A well-known work that Berg created during this trip was 'Spanish Lady'.

Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, Else and Mommie returned to the Netherlands. In the period that followed, they visited Bergen a lot, which was increasingly becoming an artists' place. So many artists came there that people started to speak of the “Bergense School”. A driving force behind this school was Piet Boendermaker, who bought works on a large scale, including those by Else Berg. Charley Toorop was also part of the “Bergense School”. Berg befriended her and was influenced by Toorop in her work. Both Berg and Schwarz were members of the “Hollandsche Kunstenaars Kring” in which they later also held administrative positions. In 1918 Berg had her first exhibition at the Kring and a second in 1919. When Else Berg married Mommie Schwarz in 1920, she acquired Dutch nationality.

In 1922 they made a trip to Italy together. In 1923 she exhibited at the international exhibition of “De Branding” and in 1927 at the new realistic artists' association “De Brug”. That same year she made a trip to the Belgian mining region around Liège, where she made paintings of miners, the circus and the fair. In 1930 she exhibited with the leading art dealer Van Lier in Amsterdam, which attracted a lot of attention. Her works mainly have scenes from farm life, portraits and nude figures as their subject. She traveled to the Balkans and to Limburg, where she created a lot of new work. A large part of this was also exhibited again, including at the Vecht art dealership in Amsterdam. She had her last solo exhibition in 1940.

During the Second World War, her Jewish origins made it difficult to exhibit work. On November 12, 1942, Else Berg and Mommie Schwarz were arrested and deported via Westerbork to Auschwitz on November 16, where they were murdered three days later.

text: Jewish Historical Museum

https://www.schilderijen-site.nl/woordenboek/else-berg/